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City of Glasgow College Students Share In £10,000 Prize Fund

Five students at City of Glasgow College have been recognised for their creativity and entrepreneurship at this year's John Mather Trust Enterprise Awards.

James Rusk, Mariam Chaudhry, Alistair Lee, Megan Held and Pawel Kmiec each received a share of £10,000 following the innovation and enterprise competition which challenges students to submit a stand-out creative idea or business proposal.

Megan Held, who has just completed her NQ Furniture, received £3,500 that will go towards the tools, materials and fabrics she will need to set up her creative upholstery studio. She said:

The competition was challenging but it really made you focus on how to develop your business idea. I would recommend other students take part next year.

My plan is to now set up my business, Held Upholstery, working to re-upholster existing furniture in a range of fabrics, either manufactured in Scotland or ones that can be customised to suit the job which will be designed and screen printed myself.

I have a studio organised in Glasgow's Merchant City and the grant will help enormously in getting set up and running. I am having a baby in September, which is also very exciting, but I aim to be open for business as soon as possible.

The students pitched their own unique business ideas in return for funding from the John Mather Trust as well as support from Bridge 2 Business which works in partnership with the college. They were presented with certificates and cheques at an awards ceremony held at the college's City campus.

Jacquie Shaw, Associate Dean for Media at City of Glasgow College, said:

This annual competition is very competitive but creates a great launching pad for the students who take part in it. Each year we are overwhelmed at the level of inspiration and entrepreneurship our students show. The finalists all benefit from an excellent package of training, thanks to Bridge 2 Business, and this year's winners had particularly strong and imaginative business ideas. With the help of this funding they can now turn those ideas into reality and we wish them all the best of luck.

Pawel Kmiec, HND Computing: Software Development, has come up with an innovative online solution that will allow students within the same college to communicate more effectively with one another.

"Colab is a safe and secure on-line platform to help students interact and collaborate with fellow students from other areas of expertise or fields of study. It will have the ability to connect, to reach outside one's classroom, to filter out the noise of social media and find exactly the kind of projects or collaborators students are interested in." said Pawel.

The £10,000 prize fund is awarded by the John Mather Charitable Trust to support young people in education in the West of Scotland. The competition is open to all City of Glasgow College students offering the opportunity to develop their talent and creativity with an enterprise focus.

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The Young Enterprise Scotland Bridge 2 Business Programme inspires, connects and supports college students into business both through our online presence and our network team of staff and volunteers across Scotland.

At Young Enterprise Scotland we passionately believe in shining a light on the ‘everyday entrepreneurs’ that young people can more easily relate to and be inspired by. We expose young people to enterprise-related learning.